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Fishwelding

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Everything posted by Fishwelding

  1. Thanks! Having surveyed my bloated, disgraceful collection of unfinished kits, I think I'm morally obligated to tackle at least one "shelf-queen." That'll probably be a long-neglected 1/72 P2V Neptune. A Cold War subject, but not armor.
  2. Tried some things with Google Drive-based photos. Didn't work either. Is there a "show the code" feature in the html editor, that I'm missing? If there was, maybe embedding code would work.
  3. I must confess, I've had similar experiences with Vallejo's polyurethane primer. I wanted to like it, since I like some of Vallejo's other products, and have used other brands of acrylic paints for years with great success. And I did some fairly comprehensive testing on clean scrap plastic, adhering to any instructions I found. (Generally, the advice was layer it on with very thin coats.) But the stuff came up easily with my finger nail, and tape would reliably lift it, too. I find a lot of Vallejo's Model Color and Model Air paints are similarly fragile, too. Ironically they, including t
  4. I always forget something that I only discover at the post-project photo shoot. I need to add mud to their boots! (Well, at least those of the infantryman. The track commander might avoid dismounting, if he can help it.) Probably should add some engine exhaust. There's likely some other stuff that should be done, too. For the base, I simply painted a piece of construction pine cut from scrap. I added some groundwork and then the longest static grass I could find. With an airbrush, I dusted it with some-or-another Vallejo light green, since in the past I've had subjects seem
  5. The older I get, the more I'm a Cold War fan, and the hobby companies are fueling that addiction with new kits. I'm already trying (without much success) to decide my next Cold War project just to build down my stash. I don't see a lot of evidence that, during REFORGER exercises, U.S. engineers built Bailey-style bridging. I've found where perhaps Dutch or Belgian troops did, though. Still, I'd like to depict that using Bronco's bridge kits, in a late-Cold War setting. I've got an M109A3 I need to finish that, together with an M151 or M548, would make a nice column scene. Plus, I have a
  6. That's a good tip, especially since I imagine the sergeant as a professional or "lifer." I'll stick with a canteen, binocs and possibly a map case. I also need to place a helmet I cobbled together. It's a crude carving, but I mean to approximate a peculiar vehicle helmet that the army evidently only used briefly before the Vietnam-era helmet. I'm not at all sure, but I speculate the Army was continuing the tradition of using U.S. tackle football helmets as a model for CVC helmets!
  7. Not much. I was kept away from my workbench this fall by my job and other things. In the past few months I did manage to get some paint onto the two infantrymen, though. The NCO's head is a Hornet item. Both figures were airbrushed with various shades of Vallejo to establish the uniform OD. Next, I added an acrylic (Testors Acryl, if I recall) base for the flesh, and then overcoat that with artist's oils so I can blend different tones, and light and shadows. I'm out of practice with those techniques. Next will be detail painting, varnish, decals, and possibly some washes. I
  8. I haven't finished it, but I assembled Revell's 1/35 scale version of this. Judging from that, and their 1/72 Fuchs, I'm guessing your Luchs has a zillion parts. But I really like Revell's kit, and look forward to getting it painted up. Before the end of the Cold War the Bundeswehr was painting Luchs in 3-color NATO-flage. But through the 1980s, there were probably units in Gelboliv, too. In the Tankograd Cold War volumes, it appears that Panzeraufklärungsbataillon 1 units taking part in the CERTAIN STRIKE exercise of 1987 might have had both finishes. A 3-color Luchs also appea
  9. My wife and I have the same strategy: a single, reasonable backpack each mainly to carry something to read or listen to on the flight, INFOSEC-sensitive documents and gear, and some emergency-wear in case the airline loses our big cases. The cases, containing clothing and stuff we buy there, go in the hold as Boeing, the airline, and probably God intended. Yes, checking luggage can be a pain and can cost money. But it's miserable to see people with multiple to-the-limit carry-on cases that slow down loading and unloading the plane, cause fights among passengers, and give the crew a massive
  10. After action report: Both Deutsche Bahn and France's SNCF did an excellent job. Very few and small delays, reasonably clean (they're public transport after all) cars, friendly officials, and fairly predictable service overall. We traveled via a pass that I thought was reasonably priced, but somewhat in line with what you said, ChernayaAkula, DB didn't always have consistent information concerning routes on the web. But my wife and I could hardly complain; our country lacks such convenient railways, so it was marvelous to us. I'm glad we didn't rent a car. Whe
  11. There's many ways to contribute money to relief efforts. For those of you who regularly shop on Amazon, they make it particularly easy to donate to the Red Cross.
  12. Really two things here. Some of my projects do have a "breaking point" that's a particular challenge and that I must do to some level of satisfaction in order for me to then go on and finish the build. As I get older, I enjoy that challenge but then sometimes neglect the model after I've successfully overcome the challenge! An example is a 1/144 USS Gato that i just painted (replacing a previous, poorly done finish). I peel the tape, grin at how the plastic toy now really starts to look like a Pacific War predator, and then forget about it for the next few weeks rather than spending the tim
  13. Binoculars, and possibly a canteen might be stacked somewhere on the maps. I might add a 1911 pistol, too, but that seems a bit dramatic for a peacetime exercise. I find Milliput is too tough to do fine work, but I've seen people do it. I think the trick is to keep your hands wet. For the guys above I used Kneadatite, that I got from a seller on Amazon or Ebay (I forget which.) It's a little easier to work with, especially if you warmed it up by mixing it rigorously. I'm working in the Cold War, which has an admittedly limited set of figure options. But even
  14. So the M113's almost finished. I need to do some odds and ends detail painting, staining, and extensive mud and dust. Plus I'll cobble up some antennas, too. But that can wait until it's time to integrate the track into a base, when I need to create groundwork anyway. (The base is cut out of scrap pine lumber, but I'm waiting for the paint to thoroughly dry.) What slows down my projects is that I keep adding jobs as I go along. So I wanted to add someone standing in the troop compartment hatch, looking at the maps. As usual I didn't have anyone who qui
  15. I've paid special attention to the various exceptions to rail passes, but they seem less of a problem where we're going (Eastern France, Western Germany.) We need to book seats for TGV, if we don't avoid it, and maybe ICE. But we're able to make all our trips by regional trains, and I've not (yet) seen where those in France or Germany don't accept rail passes. Europe's come a long way in integrating train travel. (Military history buffs may chuckle at that, since interoperability in trains was a factor in past wars.) But understandably, perhaps, it is still complicated in 2017
  16. I suspect my great-grandfather worked for one of Deutsche Bahn's predecessors (probably Royal Württemberg.) I was hoping to casually drop that into conversation at a ticket window, to see if I could get a discount.
  17. Towan's got great tutorials generally, and specifically I think he does a good job of showing how to build up the trunks and branches from wire. I've got two of those punches coming in the mail. I wonder how they'll hold up in mass production. For the leaves, I considered soaking them in a glycerine solution, which I read preserves them really well, and keeps them from being brittle. But that may mess with the punch. We'll see! This is all a big help. Thanks to both of you!
  18. Valuable input from all here! As near as I can tell, our trip might benefit from a Eurail pass, since we're going to take regional trains on a near-daily basis. I did consider renting a car, but since we're tourists, we're probably going to be in places where parking is difficult to find. Where I considered it was trying to take a day trip to OP Alpha, although that would be kind of out of our way. You may find your railways frustrating. But coming from the United States, we're frankly amazed at European rail networks. When we visited the United Kingdom, my wif
  19. If my armor modeling has a grand strategy, it's to build like the classic Shepard Paine scenes so many of us enjoyed seeing years ago. In my earliest diorama efforts I discovered that slathering plaster, cat litter, and model railroad turf onto a hastily cut plywood base didn't make very convincing groundwork in 1/35th scale. And in the past several years, I've focused on the confrontation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in Europe. Germany is green in mind, body, and spirit, so I'd better learn to build trees. Here's some experiments I've done lately. In all cases, the major
  20. With the decals on, it's time to seal them with varnish and begin weathering. I'll add some mud and dust, but I might in future do some parade-ready clean vehicles in this dark olive drab, high visibility marking scheme. It looks good to me! The big vehicle number in the bright red circle looks like this machine is ready for 24 hours at Le Mans!
  21. Fellow modelers, Europeans, and international travelers: My wife and I are considering visiting parts of France and Germany. From prior experience we're big fans of trains in Europe, but our previous adventure was in the United Kingdom only. When I look for information on train travel in France and Germany, the web offers a lot of different sites, all of whom are trying to sell things, and I think I need some feedback from a real person. (And if I can't trust plastic modeler builders, who can I trust?) Simply put, what are your favorite resources to learn about pri
  22. The hatch is attached at multiple welds because, being a ham-handed sort, I'm big on sturdiness. So rather than rip it back off I simply shaved away the old strap. I could labor over trying to provide a detailed replacement... ...or I can be a dirty cheater and simply add a vague strap, and then put scale maps on top! Of course, having introduced all this paper, I should probably add an officer to the scene, too. I've been pulled away from the M113 project for the past few months because of overtime work at my job, and this project, Miniart's "French Ca
  23. I actually like the contrast between the missiles and the vehicle. It calls attention to the vehicle's reason to be. Great job on a historically interesting subject!
  24. Before he got out of the business, my LHS owner commented that video games probably sold more model kits than hurt them. I eagerly built World War II models as a kid because of early PC games focused on that subject. I wonder: if kitmakers had seriously committed to making kits of video game subjects--Mass Effect, Fallout, or even fantasy subjects like Dragon Age or Witcher--instead of just a few hesitant and token examples, would the hobby be in such pathetic shape as it is now in North America? Revell's HALO kits are an encouraging start, but...well let's see if isn't too late.
  25. I can't decide if Rustoleum et. al. is making a rational disinvestment here. On the one hand, ours is now a decidedly wonk hobby in North America, and lots of us buy competitor products from overseas that are affordably priced and excellent quality. In this view, Rustoleum is tired of losing money to cater to a handful of hobbyists. On the other hand, Testors might have done more to market the plastic model hobby, and specifically update it's image. For example, compare their YouTube channel to that of Vallejo. This is part of bigger set of thoughts I've had over the past sev
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